Crazy Good

Insanity and genius share a fine line, and it's possible that one breeds the other. Historically we've seen examples of brilliant men acting outrageous: Van Gogh slicing his earlobe off, Austrian actor Klaus Kinski slipping in and out of blind rage throughout his life, Lord Byron living with a bear in college, etc. On top of that, there are countless masters of some art form have taken their own lives. If suicide is not the way then often the drunken writer emerges, or the drugged-up musician rears his sweaty head. When musicians find God or sobriety it is then that their music begins to suck. Look at the turn Wilco has taken since Tweedy cleaned up or the irrelevancy of Dylan's jesus albums. The fruits of "dark phases" or "acid years" seems to be the tastiest.

Daniel Johnston

I'm not going to go into background too much because there is a documentary about Johnston that is really worth seeing.

                             

Anyway, a manicly depressed outcast from a religious family in Texas who produces some of the most earnest music possible.

                           

                           


Roky Erickson

Another mentally ill musician with a cool documentary. Erickson's mental instability was largely influenced by drugs whereas Johnston always seemed a  bit deranged. Once the stud in The 13th Floor Elevators, Erickson went off the deep end and spent years in and out of hospitals. Some of his work has been recorded from the mental hospital and some out. Like Johnston, Erickson's music focuses on good and evil, with a large part of his career seeming to be downright satanic. Below is the trailer for his film and a nice non-evil track by him.

                           

                           

HI!

Hey I'm still here, just really busy. Here are a few single track snips of what I've dug up lately.

Baby Huey- Hard Times

What a killer beat. It seems a little ahead of its time, and it's no surprise that it ended up being sampled almost 30 years later by Ghostface Killah. Baby Huey never got to see the release of his first and only album on which this track appears due to a sudden heart attack. He was like 400 pounds or something.

Brenton Woods- Oogum Boogum

                                     

I heard this track in a LRG ad and it immediately killed my hangover.  Don't know much about the artist, but I do know how wonderful this song makes me feel.

                                                                                                                                      

Kenneth Higney- Can't Love That Woman

                                       

There's a lot to say about Kenneth Higney and his bizarre release "Attic Demonstration." It's a weird, low production album with a mediocre singer and disjointed songs. All the ingredients for a bad album are here, but there's something charming going on, I think.

                                                                                                                                              

It Is So Nice

My friend Craig turned me on to this guy's lone self-titled album giving praise to his simple lyrics that he sings with so much conviction. Released in 1974, "The Om Album" as it's often called never really reached more than local recognition in the Midwest even though Lucas seemed to be talented and well connected. He was in several bands before the album, most notably a psychadelic blues band called the Spike Drivers, and was also given the wacky title of "exotic strings specialist" on several Motown albums including Psychadelic Shack by The Temptations. The first side of this album is absolutely hypnotizing. Lucas' words are sparse but his messages are delivered with so much power that they need no explanation. The second side gives way to a set of mostly instrumental breakdowns that press the importance of the record. When listening on CD the last three tracks seem out of rhythm with the rest of the album. I'm sure the experience is different when you gain that pause between sides that gives the artist freedom of new directions. I posted a few from the first side. Enjoi

Weird Weird Weird

Whoa. Jim Sullivan's story alone makes you want to listen his sole album over and over again. Look for clues, trip out or vibe on his mystery. The condensed version goes as follows: In 1969 Sullivan put out an album called UFO on a Cali micro-label called Monnie. Because of local popularity his album got around but ultimately any hope of national recognition dissolved. In 1975 a seemingly determined yet possibly discouraged Sullivan took off for Nashville, where his sister-in-law lived, in an attempt to "make it." His car and guitar made it as far as Santa Rosa, New Mexico but Sullivan himself was never seen again. Now there are several possibilties as to what occured. Some think Sullivan got drunk and had a nasty run-in with a local Italian family, the Genetti's, who were rumored to have mafia ties. More entertaining theories suggest he walked into the desert or better yet confirmed the omens in his album and was taken by aliens. Most of the information I've gathered came from this article which is worth a look. Another fun fact about Jimbo is that he had a cameo in Easy Rider!!! Dark and psychadelic yet an attempt at pop. Capitol records told him he sounded too much like their singer James Taylor. Personally, I think he's hiding out somewhere with Connie Converse.


"There is something happening that isn't too clear.
Just a little different than in previous years.
I think that happiness is getting very near.
I'm checkin out the show
with a glassy eye.
Looking at the sun dancing through the sky.
Did he come by UFO?"

Green is the Colour

For a while I didn't know Pink Floyd had this in them...tin whistle....by Roger Waters

CAN I BE SATWA?

Before I did any research on this album I could hardly tell what hemisphere it came from. The sitar enters Satwa into the realm of psychadelia while the 12 string guitar rings true romantic Latin American style. Parts of the album even remind me of the old time revivalists like John Fahey and Leo Kottke, and I suspect this was a gem they may have marveled. Lula Cortes and Lailson de Holanda Cavalcanti are the two tripped-out Brazilians who recorded this album in 1973 and unfortunately it was a one time deal. At the time of it's production and release Brazil was subject to the rule of a military dictatorship and it's speculated that because of the inevitable censorship of the regime, Satwa is a lyricless album. Although it's also possible that they were really stoned and couldn't come up with anything so they just decided to hum and chant. Apparently Cortes was some kind of hippie-god so...Make of it what you want, I find this to be some really inspiring stuff.

DVR

Dave Van Ronk never learned how to drive a car and refused to leave Greenwich Village for a long, long time. One of his most passionate followers was Dylan and yet nobody really talks about Van Ronk. The Coen brothers next film Inside Llewyn Davis is supposedly based on Van Ronk's life and presence in the 60's New York folk scene. Maybe it will give him the posthumous recognition he deserves.

His singing on "Wanderin'" is absolutely devastating here and "Candyman" is a fun threading of different folks songs.

This song is about some dink that Van Ronk knew (just kidding it's traditional).

Reach Higher

This one always gets me going in the morning

Nigeria!

There was a vibrant rock 'n' roll scene in Africa in the late 60's and 70's, but Nigeria in particular seemed to have something special going on. Strut records put out a compilation called Nigeria 70 which showcases this unique sound that swelled in Nigeria in the 70's. A lot of the tracks have elements of afro-pop that are influenced by the traditional "highlife" style of music which is explained in commentary that appears on the album, but other tracks are totally imitating sounds of American rock music. Here are a couple off the compilation.

Bongos Ikwue- Woman Made the Devil


Segun Bucknor & His Revolution- La La La

Another band not mentioned on the Nigeria compilation is Ofege. It's really cool that high school kids in Nigeria were bumping this in early 70's. Kind of sounds like The Velvet Underground, at least this track does.

Gamblin'

Jack Elliot- Roving Gambler

Opening track from his 1974 self titled album off Vanguard. This song and this album!

THE DEAD!

"I would compare 'Dead' music to how bbq got its start. what some considered junk meat was turned into a mouth watering delicasy by slow cooking it." - Youtube commenter

Ah, long may you run chev202. I don't know how to respond to this comment either on this blog or on youtube. I also don't remember the birth of bbq or its long road to success. It is my guess that chev202 is talking about the long, drawn out dead jams where they really "stew" or "bbq" songs to build suspense and create a mouth watering finish that goes best with Sweet Baby Ray's.

There are a lot of stupid people that like the Grateful Dead. However, no hippies are going to ruin it for me. The tracks I like are those about drinking, gambling, robbing, women, etc. To me this is all content that doesn't resonate with hippies, sans drinking (wine). If you don't think the Dead was or could be badass then check out pictures of Pig Pen, dude. Throw the tie dye in the bonfire and enjoy this tender meat...

Connie Converse

Elizabeth "Connie" Converse was born in Laconia, NH which is home to an annual motorcycle week where raucous bikers drink Budweisers and possibly pay homage to her mystery. She started to write music when she moved to New York in pursuit of a career and her songs best represent the female experience of living there in the mid-twentieth century. Her complete story can be read here. The most intriguing part of her unusual life is that in 1972, after being beaten by the New York folk scene and having lived some despondent years since, she wrote her friends and family a parting letter in which she said goodbye and expressed her aims at "starting anew" somewhere else. Both her body and the Volkswagen Beetle she drove out of Ann Arbor were never recovered. Her brother believes she drove off a bridge somewhere west of Detroit.

Impossibly Bad Songs

Richard Harris- Macarthur Park

This song actually rules. Just listen to the chorus.

Someone left the cake out in the rain,

I don't think that I can take it

because it took so long to bake it

and I'll never have that recipe again.

Harry Chapin- Halfway to Heaven

It's really worth it to ride this one out. That way you get to find out about Harry Chapin's midlife feelings about marriage, children, and sex. Apparently he's still a beginner in the bedroom? This song is hot fire past 3:00. Oh yeah, this guy also wrote "Cat's in the Cradle."

Jana Hunter

Jana Hunter was born in Texas, a place that breeds great musicians and writers, but now she lives in Baltimore where people have a lot of tattoos. In my opinion, she's the best contemporary female folk singer working within the indie vein. Right now she seems to be more focused on rock 'n' roll with her band Lower Dens who seem pretty cool from what I've heard. She's actually been in a lot of bands, and I haven't listened to half of them, but what I have heard didn't produce the same wonderful effects of her solo albums Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom (2005) and There's No Home (2007). The guitar work is simple, the songwriting is concise, and the voice is beautiful.

Motherless Children

I think this is the shining moment for the Les Humphries Singers

Strange Babes

Karen Dalton





What a voice. K.D was out there-- tall, part Cherokee, played a 12 string Gibson guitar, afraid of the studio (recorded only two studio albums), and a substance abuser. Even though she hated it, people called her voice "the answer to Billie Holiday." While her albums found mild success, and her singing was revered (Dylan's favorite in the Greenwich village scene), it seems she was often misunderstood. True to her Cherokee roots, Dalton was said to be very connected with the Earth. Music for her was not meant to be commerical but rather personal. There is a certain amount of suffering that resonates in her music whether it speaks for herself or the ill-treated world she saw around her. Green Rocky Road (2008) is a recent release of 9 tracks recorded by Dalton herself on reel-to-reel tapes and perhaps it's the way she would have wanted her music to be heard.

Timi Yuro

This Italian little schnup had pipes that made up for her size. The little girl with the big voice was barely five feet fall, but the depth of her voice blew people away. What I find fascinating about Yuro is that she had throat surgery in 1980 and then recorded two more albums in the following four years. However, she never fully beat the cancer and was unable to sing past 1984.

"Timi's voice doesn't come from the throat, but from the heart. She doesn't just sing the song, she lives it." -Dinah Washington

Jason Molina

Molina is one of the few special heartland rockers out there therese days. He's blue collar, he's behind his music, and he's not afraid to make a shitload of it under lots of different names. He's always been the brain behind all his projects though. Songs: Ohia found the most recognition particularly with their release Magnolia Electric Co.(2003) which was the final Songs: Ohia album and later became the name of Molina's next affair. Currently Molina might be dead. He's been in and out of hospitals for the past two years, but nobody knows why. What we do know is that he has no health insurance. I think he's working on a farm in West Virginia now where he's raising chickens and the like or maybe he works in a museum in London. His life and health have been shrouded in mystery for too long. We all hope he leaves soon and starts channelling Neil Young and Springsteen in lyric driven rockers like this one.

And another one off of Fading Trails (2006) by Magnolia Electric Co.

Bonnie and Clyde

Flatt & Scruggs, an important power duo to the "original" high & lonesome sound of Appalachia. This record is with the Foggy Mountain Boys and shows a good range of songs. Fast bluegrass breakdowns and slow soothers. Don't get it mixed up with "Theme from the film Bonnie and Clyde" which I found to be disappointing. Most of the songs written by Thomas T. Hall.

Since we're on the topic...Other artists have taken a stab at the Bonnie and Clyde business, and Serge Gainsbourg kind of kills it here. French seduction..Bonnniiieeeee